Maple Room
Children at Work 1.25.16 - 1.29.16
Sharing a Song at Community Gathering
Math Workshop
- Constructing, describing, and extending a repeating pattern with the structure AB, ABC, AAB, or ABB.
- Identifying the unit of a repeating pattern.
- Describing how various repeating patterns are alike (e.g. how is a red-blue pattern like a yellow-green pattern?).
- Determining what comes several steps beyond the visible part of an AB, ABC, AAB, or ABB repeating pattern.
- Constructing, extending, and describing a pattern that has a constant increase for the sequences 1, 3, 5, . . . ; 2, 4, 6, . . . ; 1, 4, 7, . . . ; 2, 5, 8, . . . ; and 3, 6, 9 . . . through counting and building.
The kids began the unit by talking about their previous knowledge of patterns. Each child made a number of repeating patterns from a variety of materials, including colored caps, Unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. They recorded their patterns in a "pattern book" to share with others. By the end of the week, children had learned some vocabulary surrounding repeating patterns, including the words "element" and "unit." They had also related using letters to define the elements of the unit in a pattern. The kids played the game "What Comes Here?" with Unifix cube trains and began to determine and use the repeating unit of a pattern to predict the color of the cube in the 8th, 10th, 12th, and 20th spots of the train. Some children began to notice matching number patterns that helped them make generalizations and rules about how to determine the color of any cube in the sequence. For example, one child saw that for an AB pattern using orange and black, all of the odd numbers would always be black cubes and all of the orange cubes would always be even numbers.
Work You Can Do at Home to Support Pattern Work:
- Go on a pattern hunt around your house or while walking around in the world. There are many kinds of patterns to notice!
- Make and Exchange Patterns: If you have some materials at home to make patterns (beads, buttons, crayons, blocks, shapes, different color dots or shapes drawn on paper, etc.) you and your child can construct repeating patterns, then trade them to figure out the unit of the pattern. If you need some cut-out paper shapes from school, let us know!
Making Patterns with...
Reading Workshop
(to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know it")
If you think that something's wrong you've got to STOP
(clap, clap)
If you think that something's wrong you've got to STOP
(clap, clap)
If you think that somethings wrong and you say what’s going on?
If you think that something's wrong you've got to STOP
(clap, clap)
In partner reading, the kids practiced how to help a friend who had come across an unfamiliar word. Instead of telling the reader the word, partners practiced suggesting strategies to use to figure out the tricky word.
Project Time
On Friday, members of the Pine class came and shared a "How to Make a Terrarium" book that one of the students wrote last year. The Pine class students gave us advice about building and caring for terrariums. Then the Maple students built their own terrariums using sand, rocks, compost-enriched soil, moss, and plants.
As the living systems unit progresses, the children will observe their terrariums in partnerships, collect and record information into an observation log, and make adjustments to their terrarium in order to best care for the plants inside. Through this activity, children will practice important research skills and see how their actions and choices can affect the health of another system.
What are the parts of the plant that work together?
How are the plants similar and different?
What do the plants need from the outside to make their system work?
Pine class terrarium experts share their experiences building and caring for terrariums...
Terrarium Fun
Mixing some compost with the soil
Adding rocks, sand, soil, moss, and plants!
Voila!
Worm Bin Care
First, we shredded newspaper...
Then we placed the frozen food scraps in and covered them with the newspaper
Done!
Exploration
Making Origami decorations to hang at the circus
Next Week's Events
Mark Morris Dance Group Classes on Mondays
Family School Collaborative Meeting on Wednesday, February 3rd
Please join us to kick of the new year! We have a new FSC board and need your help to make the Spring activities a success. We will be talking about the Family Dance, Eco Fair, Spring Fling Fundraiser, Book Fair, and more!
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 3
Location: Community Room
Food and Mingling: 6-6:30pm
FSC Meeting: 6:30-7:30
Brian Returns on Wednesday, February 3rd
Mid-Winter Break Housing for Bill the Hermit Crab
Bill needs his food replenished every few days and needs his water sponge and dish filled each day. He needs his lamp turned on during the daytime and should be kept away from any cold air.
Bill can be left alone overnight for 1-2 days as long as the cage light is left on and his food and water are stocked.
Please let us know if you would be willing to house Bill as soon as possible! First person to volunteer gets him.